Kids who grow up around more green space have lower risk of ADHD, study suggests
CBC
A study featuring researchers from the University of British Columbia suggests that children who grow up around more green space are less likely to develop attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
ADHD occurs in five to nine per cent of children worldwide, according to the Centre for ADHD Awareness.
It is a chronic condition and can lead to an inability to properly regulate attention and emotions, and is the most common neurodevelopmental disorder among children.
However, it is still unknown what exactly causes the condition. The two main causes are thought to be genetics and environmental risk factors such as air pollution.
"We know [air pollution] can create a lot of inflammation in the body that could actually affect features of the brain," said Dr. Michael Brauer from the UBC School of Population and Public Health and one of the authors of the recent paper, published in the journal Environment International.
"So we thought, here's a condition [ADHD] … that has certainly been linked to brain development. If air pollution also affects brain development, is there a link here?"
The paper looked at more than 37,000 children born in Metro Vancouver in the year 2000, and tracked their developmental progress through hospital records and physician visits until they were 10 years old.
This data was then analyzed through various metrics: the green space surrounding their home postal codes, exposure to fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide, as well as noise.
Subsequently, scientists discovered that children who grew up around more green space, and were exposed to less particulate matter, had a lower likelihood of developing ADHD.
"If you compared [children who grew up around] the least air pollution and the highest amount of vegetation, to the [ones who grew up around] most air pollution and lowest amount of vegetation … there was about a twofold difference in the risk of developing ADHD," Brauer said.
The paper found that green space — parks, natural canopy, and trees — helped reduce the effects of air pollution, even if there were high amounts of particulate matter in a given neighbourhood.
"This sort of access to nature, exposure, and vegetation could be really important," Brauer said.
"We are sort of evolutionarily programmed to be living in a natural setting, so the urban areas that we live in now are not really what we're designed to live in."
Brauer says that even the act of crossing the street can be more stressful than the relatively calming effect of being in nature.
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